Great article The Impact of Findability on on Student Motivation, Self-Efficacy, and Perceptions of Online Course Quality!

“Findability” is a component of “usability,” whereby students can find essential course components. Results included that courses with low findability reported lower levels of self-efficacy and motivation.

Interested in learning more about how you can get more involved with Quality Matters at Tri-C and improve findability in your course? Contact Sasha.Thackaberry@Tri-C.edu.

Congratulations to Professors Mike Piero and Raj Mohan on having their courses Quality Matters recognized this summer!

Professor Raj Mohan’s Course English 1020 achieved QM recognition. This is the second course that Professor Mohan has had recognized by Quality Matters – she also has had English 1010 recognized.

What does earning Official QM recognition mean?

The Quality Matters Rubric is a set of 8 general standards and 41 specific standards used to evaluate the design of online and blended courses. To become officially QM Recognized a course: 1) Completed review by a 3-person trained team, including one Master Reviewer, one Subject Matter expert and at least one External Reviewer), 2) Meet All of the 3-Point essential standards, and 3) Earn a total overall score of 81 out of 95 points. Learn more about the course review process on QM’s site here: https://www.qualitymatters.org/reviews.

Please join us in congratulating Professors Mike Piero and Raj Mohan for their excellent work on behalf of student success online. The Quality Matters recognition process is a rigorous one, and both have had a huge commitment to the design and building of their courses. I’d also like to congratulate our instructional designers who worked with them to prepare – Cheryl Knight form Metro Campus, and Rachel Harmon from Westshore Campus.

Want to get involved?

If you are interested in getting more involved with Quality Matters at Tri-C, please contact Sasha.Thackaberry@Tri-C.edu.

This workshop explores the QM Project and Processes and prepares you to be part of an initiative that positively impacts the design of online/blended courses and ultimately, learning and success for the learner. QM is designed to improve the quality of online/blended courses by establishing a peer-reviewed quality assurance review process. You will become familiar with QM standards and participate in a practice peer course review of an online course using the review tools.

What have you been up to for Open Education Week? Or even “What is Open Education”?

Open Educational Resources, or OER, are free, openly licensed resources that anyone can use to learn for free. The vast majority of the time you can also “rip, remix and burn” them – in other words, pull them down from online, make changes,and republish them with citation. OER is in alignment with the mission of access of community colleges, and its use is expanding geometrically within the field!

Check out this great, short video that explains the basic concept:

Are you on Twitter? A Twitter event has been going on for OER, a non-stop, 24 hour online discussion! Use #AllAboutOpen to check it out:) #OpenEducationWk

ATTENTION STUDENTS: How do you feel about Blackboard? We want to know! Tri-C is conducting a review to determine if Blackboard is still the best fit for a Learning Management System (LMS), or if there might be a better system for our needs. Tell us about your experience with Blackboard: http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/mindwires/tri-c-lms-student-survey/

The Department of Education’s analysis pointed to blended learning–a combination of online and in-class instruction–as the most effective teaching method, which has since been echoed by the findings of Marc Loudon, a professor of medicinal chemistry at Purdue University, who once doubted the effectiveness of online coursework. Loudon examined the performance of 226 organic chemistry students in fall 2009. Those that engaged in online homework on top of their class lectures and textbook homework had a full-grade higher average than their peers who studied without the aid of the online tool.

Loudon, who authored the textbook but had no hand in the creation of the online material, checked to see if the students who did the extra work online were more driven, or perhaps better students overall, but found no correlation between their organic chemistry grades and those they’d previously received in general chemistry. “Students are highly engaged when they work online because they get instant feedback,” he says. “The degree of benefit surprised me–I hate to admit it. The study convinced me of something that I didn’t believe would happen.”

Tech Facilitates a Return to Learning in Iraq

The violence that came in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq had a double-edged effect on higher education there. Professors fled the country and the students that remained had no one to teach them. Despite pleas to return home, many have elected to remain in exile.

So now the Iraq Scholar Rescue Fund has created the “Iraq Scholars Lecture Series” to unite those expatriate scholars with Iraqi college students via technology.

The Scholar Rescue Fund, run by the Institute of International Education, helps to get endangered scholars, targeted by religious and political extremists, out of the country where they’re living and out of danger. Now they’re helping those same professors to get their knowledge back in.

The popularity of distance learning is exploding, especially in K-12 education. With over 2 million students enrolled nationwide, and 25 states offering full-time online education, distance learning is becoming more important than ever. Below is the story of Lyndsey Fry, a 17-year-old who went from an online high school diploma to being accepted to Harvard. What do you think of Lyndsey’s story?

Online School for Your 13-Year-Old?

Lyndsey Fry has a message about kids who attend school online: “We’re not slackers.”

The 17-year-old hockey phenom from Arizona moved from online high school diploma to Harvard. Now her younger brother Wesley seeks a similar goal — to graduate from the same virtual high school.

“It will be a whole new experience,” said Wesley, 15, who forayed into virtual learning this fall. “I’ll miss my friends, my school. But I won’t miss getting up early, especially to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus.”

Kidding aside, the Frys’ choice of online schooling is serious stuff: The fastest-growing trend in education has more than 2 million students enrolled nationwide, said Susan Patrick, president of the International Association of K-12 Online Learning, an advocacy group in Vienna, Va. In the U.S., 32 states provide virtual learning, with 25 states offering a full-time online education, she said.

“Some people think that online learning is just a piece of software, but it’s much more than that,” said Patrick. “What we’re trying to do is to make the online option available to every student. And students are interested.”

Reasons behind the growth spurt:

Online education, or remote learning, offers greater flexibility for students with extracurricular demands, like elite athletes, child actors, children with disabilities or illnesses.

Virtual school also helps young people who want more independence with their classes, or want to spend more time with their families.

Remote learning provides another option for parents who want to home-school but don’t have the expertise or time to do so.

Traditional schools are starting to offer online courses and using their own teachers to complement curriculum.